Study of the interfacial regions in Fe/Cr multilayers.

The magnetism at the interfacial regions of the [Fe(50 Å)/Cr(27 Å)]20 antiferromagnetic coupled multilayer was studied using the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) technique. Two experimental approaches were used to reach the interface regions. In the first one, multilayers of the same type, deposited with the Cr capping layer with different thicknesses of 30, 20, 10, and 5 Å, were analyzed and we obtained a magnetic depth profile without removing the layers. In the second approach, the layers of the sample were thinned by several in situ sputtering cycles with Ar+ ions, followed by XMCD analysis. We found a strong reduction of the Fe spin magnetic moments in the sputtered sample, which was caused by the erosion of the layers. On the contrary the noneroded samples kept the Fe bulk moment values. The observation of Cr XMCD signal evidenced an induced moment on Cr antiparallel to the Fe moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]